Pencil us in for Thanksgiving '07

Anyone feel like gathering in a soothing green dining room for Thanksgiving this year? Perhaps we'll even have a range installed in our kitchen by then, but if not, I hear crock pot turkey can be very tasty. The Reynolds can fight the Jacksons for dibs on bunking in the den. Losers get the basement (unfinished, cobwebs and leaky pipes included). If you can't stomach the basement, you are always welcome to share our pink and purple master suite.
Can't wait for Fall!

Front of House

Driveway leading to garage View from front yardLiving Room
Dining Room
Den

Downstairs bath accessed through the DenKitchen

Heading upstairs... Upstairs landingUpstairs bathUpstairs master bedroom (don't ask me why the 3 year old got the master)
Part of backyard

A penguin walks in a big empty room

This is not Brandon. I'm just too lazy to sign out of his account and back into mine.

I tried to comment on Jackson's Flickr page but it was too big of a hassle to sign in or sign up or something they wanted me to do... (Is anyone else sensing the feeling of extreme lazyness I am experiencing right now?) So I just wanted to say that the picture of Gracie demonstrating her penguin walk is comic genius. That picture is so great for so many reasons, her guesture, her face, her hair, the scrunchee on the side, the empty tile floor behind her - it's all just working for her. I miss her!

Midnight ramblings

I thought I should check in, finally. The whole password fiasco turned me off to the whole blogging thing. Reading, fine, posting, too much work.
So, in the scriptures, God is referred to with many attributes: God of love, mercy, justice, power, omnipotence, etc. But they forgot to mention a God of irony. This has been manifested in my life yet again, as I have been called to be the Enrichment Counselor. I know I have joked many times that this would probably happen to me, since I don't really like enrichment. I felt completely safe in saying this, even knowing about the omni-ironicness, because SURELY God loves the rest of the Relief Society more than he loves making a point to me about keeping my mouth shut. Apparently I was wrong. And apparently I am about to embark on a "growing" phase in my life. Actually, I got the calling before we left for our vacation, but I didn't want to tell anyone because I was sure they'd realize soon that they were actually supposed to call and ask me to GO to enrichment. Ah, well. It seems to be for real. If your RS has any activities that are working well, please send me ideas.
In other news, we just excavated a 6" deep pit in our kitchen during what was supposed to be a quick and simple change of tile in front of the fireplace. Every time Grace walks by, she says, "Daddy BIIIG mess!" And I don't bother to explain that Daddy made that big mess at my request and cursed my name when we discovered the cavern.
So, I just have to say that I am totally addicted to Gilmore Girls. I knew that you liked them, Annie, but I had seen a few episodes and found them boring and annoying. But a friend here also loves them, and so I decided that it must be worth another try. I was in need of a new show to tivo and watch while I fold laundry. So, I suffered through 4 or 5 episodes, and suddenly found myself thinking about them all the time. "When can I watch? Can I get 2 episodes in during Grace's nap? Should I do dishes first? No." I like the long-term relationships, like the mother-daughter bond, and now Logan is on the scene, I like him. It's just a great alternate reality, and a great mix of bitter and sweet. So, Alisa, if you need to find a way to fritter away an hour a day, check your ABCfamily channel for reruns TWICE a day!

Match Anniversary

A few random things.
1. For the guys: you have to check out the match list from Iowa this year. It's on their website. It's fun to see where everybody that used to be in our class ended up (Cari, Phil Wynn, Miran, Tim Eldridge, Chuck Murphy, etc, etc. etc.) as well as the guys like Lee and Drew in that class. What stood out to me is way more of that class did primary care than ours (specifically, the puplished numbers are 50% for them, vs. only 40% of our class). Not much surgical stuff at all for them. Tons of ER. Weird, huh? http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/osac/programsrecords/match/matchresults.htm
2. Thanks to the Reynolds, I'm hooked on the band Mates of State right now. Thanks for the recommendation. The album Bring It Back is a lot of fun. Specifically, go download the track So Many Ways - it's the coolest male-female harmony or duet (or whatever it's called) I've heard in a long time.
3. A couple of other music related things: I know you all own a bunch of music, but sometimes when I feel like just listening to random stuff, the two following sites are pretty come in really handy.
A)Pandora: This is a site that starts with a favorite song or artist you enter and then it creates a station based on music that it predicts you will like. When a song comes along, you can say whether you like it or not (bonus: you can skip songs you don't care for), and it evolves into a station even more specific to your tastes, based on each song you give the yay or nay to. It's pretty cool, and they seem to have a ton of music on there.http://www.pandora.com/
B)As for internet radio, Yahoo Music may be the best I've found. They have so many stations and I can always find something fun based on my mood. The Coffeehouse, 90's Rock, Indie Rock, Hip Hop's Dopest Debuts, and Gay Club Mix (current top song: SexyBack by Justin Timberlake!) are all top choices (kidding, obviously, about the last two). The only thing that sucks is that they have commercials, and the highest audio quality is only on the "Plus" mode, which I guess you pay for. http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast/stations/default.asp

The splendor

I contribute to several blogs and I'm posting these pictures of our new floor on every single one of them. Go finished the floors this past weekend (actually the baseboards still need to be re-painted) and we are loving them. As you can see, he did a FANTASTIC job. It is times like this when I see him build and/or create something beautiful with his skillful hands that I think "Wow. Someday he's going to make a lot of women very happy with their new boobs."

Washington State Ringger Evacuation

So I thought I would share this bit of news. It doesn't effect any of you, but I'm excited about it. My dad, who has been looking for a new job for about 18-20 months and was even commuting to Chicago for a few months last year before deciding he hated that company, and who we thought at different times may be getting a job in Seattle, Chicago, South Dakota, Palm Springs, Oakland, and Omaha, has now received/decided to accept a job for a company in Redding, CA (2 hrs north of Sacramento by Lake Shasta). It's a big deal for my family who has been in the Seattle area for the last 25 years. It has been a difficult past year and a half. Although we are selfishly kind of glad we have had them close during our year in Spokane because we've had a ton of fun with them this year, especially Caleb and Maryn. So all Ringgers will be leaving the state this summer, which kind of makes me sad to be "losing" my hometown, but my parents are really excited, and that's more important to me. Who knows, this may be the first step in us ending up in Northern CA after residency, which has always been in our list of possibilities.

Just a Dream

One other recommendation I have is this lovely machine here. BMW M6 Coupe. V10, 500 HP, 0-60 in 4.5 sec. If I had money that I was looking for ways to spend (MSRP = $98,000), I would be driving one of these. My question for you is, what is YOUR dream car?

One More

Okay, it took me forever to remember the title and author of this one because we listened to it on tape as we were moving--all I remembered was the plot and that I thought it was outstanding. Frederick Forsyth Avenger. This is as good a thriller as anything I've read in the last couple years and the suprise twist at the end is perfect. Two enthusiastic tumbs up.

Rob's Recs

So I've been dying to really dive into this discuss about things that are worth recommending. So.........

Things I like that I hope you guys will too and that I don't like very much and hope you won't either. :)

TV: Other than Psych, not much new to recommend. Still loving the Office. Somewhat embarrased to admit but I am looking forward to the new season of Dancing with the Stars. Julie has become a full-fledged Gillmore Girls junkie with the help of ourDVR. I'm kind of wavering on Lost, I really didn't like the mini-season, and I wasn't that in to the first episode since it came back. However, we haven't been able to watch it since we got to Utah, so I'll have to see what the last couple of episodes were like. I'm pretty much just tired of new characters with new back stories and after the end of Alias I have no faith that JJ actually has any answers. (that and as Chad pointed out--what the heck is a Kidney Sac? Was I gone that day in anatomy lab?)

Movies: Really liked both Stranger than Fiction (as previously discussed) and the Devil Wore Prada. Really want to see The Illusionist and The Prestige, but haven't had time. Really hated Superman. Just saw Music and Lyrics, it gets a very strong Meh...The 80's music video at the start is almost worth the price of admission, the rest was throughly mediocre--at best.

Books:
Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling. Okay, how boring am I that I am recommending a biography? I love this book though, it's really facinating. The guy that wrote it a history prof at Columbia and a member of the church, and he's brilliant. It's insightful, interesting and inspiring without making you feel like you are sitting in a BYU religion class and without sound like it was something churned about by the religion dept/Deseret Book industrial complex.

Blink, The Art of Thinking without Thinking. I think Ringgers may have read this one already. It's a really compelling look at the power of the subconcious. I wasn't sure what to do with all his info, once I was done reading it, but it's cool enough I don't mind.

Snack Food: Hershy's Really Nuts, Cocao Covered Chocolate Peanuts. MMMMMMMMM. Buy a bag and keep eating after the first handful, by the end of the bag you will have fallen in love. The cocoa is a little bitter at first,but for lack of a better way to explain it, they finish well.

I would also recommend.......vacation. It's been really nice to have some time off to see our families. We actually managed to work it out so we were here for the Girls State Highschool BBall Tourney, so we got to see my sister and her team win the 4a state title. Even Gracie liked going to the games.

Cya,
Rob

Songs I Dig

As promised, these are some specific songs I heartily recommend:

The Shins - "Red Rabbits"
The Shins - "Girl Sailor"
Arcade Fire - "Rebellion (Lies)"
Bloc Party - "I Still Remember"
Arctic Monkeys - "Mardy Bum"
The Format - "Time Bomb"
Guided by Voices - "Hold On Hope"
Incubus - "Dig"
Jenny Lewis - "Rise Up With Fists"
The Kooks - "Naive"
Regina Spektor - "Fidelity"
The Strokes - "You Only Live Once"

Now, time to go download the Reynolds' suggestions

One Meager Suggestion

I think Rob is really on to something. My life is made richer because of the suggestions you guys throw my way. I wouldn't have read some of my favorite books or be watching my favorite shows without you! Chad did an awesome job of passing on the "must-haves" of Ringger life right now, but I do have one more suggestion.
We are all big Thai food fans and my friend introduced me to a wonderful (and easy) Thai dessert.
Black Rice Pudding. Serve it over ice cream after your favorite Thai dish. Mmmm.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/233288

The Suggestion Box

It's great to hear from the Jackson's. I love Rob's ideas of an exchange of recommendations. Sounds fun. Here goes a few from me.

TV Shows: Not many new ones for us, mainly the old standbys (Office, Scrubs, Lost, Survivor). Have never watched 24 or Heroes. Would definitely recommend 30 Rock, though. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are hilarious. It's been can't miss status for me now since the first 2 or 3 I watched.

Movies: 2 recent DVDs that I'd recommend: States of Grace - Richard Dutcher film (God's Army). Probably the best "Mormon" movie that's been made. Would easily watch it with non-members. Not necessarily "about" Mormons. Really well done. United 93 - Even knowing what's going to happen, it was engrossing the entire time. Leaves you mad, scared, sad, and proud all at once.

Books:
-No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy - cool book, fairly quick read, part thriller, part philosophical questions on the future of our society - whether there is hope, or if things are just going down the toilet (with what we know about what will happen before the second coming, I'm going with the latter, but that doesn't stop us from trying, does it?)
-Affluenza - funny and eye-opening. Helps with that never-ending nag I have to finally have money and "things" someday. Turns out there's more to life. Who would have thought? But seriously, we probably all need reminding sometimes.

Music:
-Reynolds Special, for Ruby - Ruby, by Kaiser Chiefs
-I second Australia, by the Shins, and the entire album, Wincing the Night Away
-In addition to the Shins, my playlist samples heavily from the latest albums from Bloc Party, The Hold Steady, The Strokes, Incubus, The Format, The Arctic Monkeys, Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, and Motion City Soundtrack. Sorry, I don't do very good at recommending tracks - if a like a band, I kind of just recommend the whole album, but I know you guys download tracks a lot, so I'll do better next time.

Flickr Ghosts

Ok, so I went to the Jackson's Flickr page and I think it is haunted. These two pictures showed up instead of some pics that were supposed to be of Grace going to sleep and one of icy leaves. When you click on the photo, the real one comes up. But seriously? Who are these people? Spooky.
So Rob asked about any opinions/interests. I realize this was pointed at Brandon, not me but since I seem to be the Reynolds spokesperson as of late, I will do it, but know that this is coming from Brandon. (Don't take him not blogging personally - he doesn't even blog on the big Reynolds family (with his brothers and his parents) and you all know how umbilically attached he still is to his family, so he doesn't love you any less, he just really is hardly ever here and when he is here, he's ripping up our kitchen floor to put down new cherrywood hardwood flooring! Yea!) So. Newish Things Reynolds like:
-The movie "Stranger Than Fiction"
-The TV show "24" - get the DVDs and watch them from the beginning first season. And when you watch them on DVD, you can watch at least 2 in a row because watching just one episode will drive you mad.
-The TV show "Heroes" - really good and you all probably watch it all ready
-The book "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts - IT'S CRAZY. It's hard to believe all of this really happened to the guy. If you ask Brandon, all of it really didn't. Classic Reynolds.
-Snack food: Pringles Select Sun Dried Tomato chips. SO GOOD.
-Snack food: Meduri dried fruits - Brandon's parents put them in our stockings and then sent them to us for V-Day and they are UNREAL. I don't know where they are sold, they might be an internet buy.
-Technology: Mac's Airport Extreme Base Station. Here's what it makes possible for us: It makes our internet and iTunes wireless, so our internet connection is down in the basement, our computer upstairs in the front room and we can play music from upstairs from our iTunes on the stereo downstairs in the basement.
-Some songs we have downloaded lately:
-"Maybe You Can Owe Me" by Architecture in Helsinki
-"Scenic World" by Beirut
-"The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
-"LDN" and "Smile" by Lily Allen
-"Goods" by Mates of State
-"Wrath Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" and "Requim for O.M.M." by Of Montreal
-"Hey There Deliliah" by Plain White T's
-"Australia" by The Shins
We did it, now it's the rest of your turns!

If you close your eyes and pretend it's a littler warmer, we could almost be on Maui....

We're baa-aack. FINALLY figured out whey we couldn't post. Sorry for the long hiatus and thanks for letting us know we were missed. We've been having issues with our log-in stuff, as the comments from Chad's post show. Even when we thought we had it worked out--after Alisa's post about the super-bowl we could comment but we still couldn't post. Turns out that things are a little more confusing when you already have a gmail account. I'll spare you the details, but the good news is that we're back on the Frank4president campaign team. When is Frank declaring by the way? All the other candidate are already throwing their hats in the ring. Is Frank still in the exploratory committee stage, still mulling over his run? Does Frank and Mitt Romney sounds like a ticket that would capture the imagination of voters?

Anyway, things in Jackson -land are good. Great in fact. We have to take all 4 weeks of our vacation in a block and my block is the month of Feburary. So this post is actually coming to you from St. George, Utah. We're just getting ready to go take-in part of the St. George area home show. We spent the first ten days of my break working on the house--doing dry-wall and paint. It's actually starting to look like somewhere someone might want to live. Then we took off for San Diego for 4 days. Grace is in the huge animal/fish phase so we thought that San Diego would be perfect warm weather for us, the SD zoo and Sea World for Gracie. It was sweet, there's something theraputic about shorts and flip-flops. It wasn't Maui, but standing on the beach, if you closed your eyes and listened to the waves, and ignored the still slightly chilly temperatures, it was close--or at least a lost closer than Michigan in Feburary.

As time goes on, I've realized that one of the things I miss most about the good old Iowa City days is not just hanging out with you all, but how much I appreciated your taste and opinions. From Alias, to the Office, to the Transporter, to books by Michael Connelly and Harlan Coban, to the Killers, to breakfast at the Hamburg Inn, so many of the things I enjoyed were things you guys turned us on to. I'd like to think that maybe we contributed by introducing you to lunch at Lincoln cafe, the wonders of wal-mart brownies, chocolate and toffee covered macadamia nuts and the joys of living in a trailer. Anyway, here's my proposal, if there are any new shows, movies, authors, web sites--heck even snack-food products that you've taken a liking to--post it on the blog. That way I can once again be the beneficiary of Ringger/Reynolds good taste. My initiatial contribution will be this. The show Psych on US network. It's actually pretty funny--and it's perfect for those Friday nights where you want to watch something, but you're too tired to make it through an entire movie or you don't feel like going to the video store. I'll limit it to that for now since this is getting too long and there are still picture's I want to add.


The kitchen w/ new cabinets and counters, this was taken before we had all the cabinet doors and before we painted the walls milk-chocolate brown (the green looked weird w/ the counters). Obviously we still need drapes too, but at least it's out of the 70s.



San Diego pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gracesfam I'd post them, but flikr is being kind of cranky about it right now.

Must see video. Gracie now loves to dance, this is her shaking it at the Urology Dept. Xmas Karaoke party. We were there for 2 hours and we couldn't get her off the stage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eudrE2wgra4

More later,
Rob

"Not crazy, per se, just a little strange when he gets hungry"

Greetings Med School Buddies,
I have been meaning to post this for as long as this blog has existed, but am just now getting my lazy, but well-meaning butt around to it (what? can a butt even be "well meaning"? Well yes,trust me, it can).

So our story begins back sometime in the glorious 90's. When Pearl Jam was a hugely popular, although pretty misunderstood band. Everyone thought that Eddie Vedder, while obviously talented (actually some even argued against that, how dare they!) was some boorish, depressed artist who took himself way too seriously. The truth was, he was a shy, complicated guy, who did happen to take his work pretty seriously, but who also loved to have fun, although that last part was never portrayed very well by the music media, since he had a harder time doing it in the spotlight.

Well, after touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992, Pearl Jam recorded a completely silly, kinda funky (Chili Peppers-influenced) song that was released as a B-side on the Even Flow single. The song - and here's where the relevance to each one of you comes in - was called Dirty Frank.

The best part about a song existing called Dirty Frank, with the way those words immediately recall Hana for all six of us, is that the song is based (I'm serious) on the band's former tour bus driver who was so creepy that they all joked that he must be a cannibal who chopped people up and ate them. They started calling this creepy bus driver Frank Dahmer. This song was born. I can just imagine him waiting sleepily in the driver's seat while the band, crew, and all the gear get loaded onto the bus. . . sitting there in his underwear and wife beater. . . breathing heavily . . . cats circling his feet. . .that freaking crazy look in his eye that would come to haunt all six of our dreams some 15 years later. . .

And now, after the link, Dirty Frank.
http://song2play.com/p/pearl_jam-3559/lost_dogs-16108/dirty_frank-213823.html

Super Bowl Blues

I used to love Super Bowl Sunday because of the commercials (a marketing major's dream), but during the Iowa years it came to be much more. I found myself abandoning the commercials for another love, a new passion - Annie's fondue pot. Why is fate so cruel that we are all separated on this day? The festivities always included the boys watching a little football and talking about which of their classmates had gained the most weight that year. The girls sat around the food and spoke whenever our mouths weren't too full about how girly the boys were acting. Those were the days!
I have to say my fondest R/J/R Super Bowl memory was a delightful smorgasboard of culinary delights followed by Jennifer Garner fighting imperial evil while clad in lingerie. Good ol' Syd.
Miss you guys!
P.S. Does anyone know if the Jacksons are still our friends? Haven't heard a peep from Michigan in aeons.

Spare Tires, etc.

This Saturday we found our city covered in a heavy blanket of snow. When faced with such an encounter, you have two choices: hibernate under warm covers and deal with cabin-fevered kids, or suit up and embrace the cold. We found some old inner tubes in the garage and set out to our favorite Spokane park. The kids were fearless (no surprise) and went down the same slopes as the teenagers. Chad and I were disturbed to realize the tubes we used to float down the Provo river as college students could no longer support our big bums, so we were spectators only :( Next time we'll buy some Monster truck tubes for ourselves.
Be prepared for gratuitous family photos...

A bone

Ok, so after some thought over which blog to post this on (this one, Reynolds family or mine) Frank4president won out on account of #1, the caliber of people who read and contribute to this blog of course and #2 - any ounce of squeamishness you once posessed has been smudged out of you by either attending thousands of hours of med school classes or being subjected to your spouse's med school study material. And really, let's be honest here - just by being friends with Brandon and I - that would desensitized the most Squeamish of all Squeamyishnesses. Which is also why I posted the picture of the face lift aftermath on this blog as well. You guys are the only ones who could handle it. ANYWHO. I swear I'm getting to my point (you know you all miss me, admit it.) The following transcript was taken from our bathroom two evenings ago:

Ruby: (on toilet and crying) Waaaah!
Me: (concerned mother calling out to her dear daughter from another room) Ruby, quit crying and finish up! We have to leave!
Ruby: (still on toilet and continues to cry) Waaaah!
Me: (comes in from the other room, sweetly smiling and as always, is as patient as can be) Hey, what's the deal? What are you crying about?
Ruby: (still on toilet and still crying) Waaaah! I can't push out my poo-pee! It won't come out! Waaaah!
(So we sit awhile, I have her drink some warm water and finally, she goes)
Ruby: (ever so excited) Mom! I think I just pooped out a BONE!

It took everything in me to not call Brandon at work and let him know our daughter "just pooped out a bone."

New blog login thingee

The company that hosts our blog has updated their software, so everyone will need to update their login information if you still want to be able to post, which I hope hope hope you all do, because I love reading them. Just follow the directions... It's now done through Google or something. You're all smart - you can figure it out. :)

Face lift, anyone?

I get some pretty funny responses when people learn that my husband will someday soon be a plastic surgeon. Of course, their eyes quickly scan my body for any obvious "upgrades", and just as quick as they figure out that the obvious answer to their queries is a big "no", out shoots all kinds of probing questions as to what I will have done to myself in the future. Among these questions is always the "So, are you totally going to get a face lift someday?" And my answer is always "I hope not." Here's why: